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Theta roles are the names of the participant roles associated with a predicate: the predicate may be a verb, an adjective, a preposition, or a noun. If an object is in motion or in a steady state as the speakers perceives the state, or it is the topic of discussion, it is called a theme. [1]
In generative grammar, this is encoded in terms of the number and type of theta roles the verb takes. The theta role is named by the most prominent thematic relation associated with it. So the three required arguments bear the theta roles named the agent (Reggie) the patient (or theme) (the kibble), and goal/recipient (Fergus). On Friday does ...
The theta-role theme does not have an argument matched to it. On the other hand, in example (1c), there are more arguments than theta-roles. Both theta-roles are matched to arguments (Megan with Agent and Jason with theme), but there is an argument left without a corresponding theta-role (Kevin has no theta-role) (Carnie 2007). Thus for reasons ...
In generative linguistics, Burzio's generalization is the observation that a verb can assign a theta role (a title used to describe the relationship between the noun phrase and the predicate, such as agent, theme, and goal) to its subject position if and only if it can assign an accusative case to its object.
Thematic role is a linguistic notion, which may refer to: . Theta role (in syntax or at the syntax-semantics interface), the formal device for representing syntactic argument structure—the number and type of noun phrases—required syntactically by a particular verb
S-Selection is an important addition to any lexical entry in order to make them easier to interpret (SKS, 2015). According to the Theta Criterion, every argument bears one and only one theta role (Chomsky, 1965). Below is an example for each theta role (SKS, 2015): CAUSE: a cause; The dog bit the child. This made him cry
vP is considered a propositional unit because all the theta roles are assigned in vP: in (2) the verb ate in the vP phase assigns the Theme theta role to the DP the cake and the Agent theta-role to the DP Mary. [12] (1) John said [CP that Mary will eat the cake]. (2) [CP Mary [vP <Mary> ate the cake].
Every verb has theta roles and under the theta criterion every theta role must be present in the structure of the sentence; [5] this means that theta roles must be associated with a syntactic position even when there is no overt argument. Therefore, in the absence of an overt subject, the null category PRO helps to satisfy the theta criterion. [5]